OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 333 



its summit found ourselves overlooking a long and narrow arm of the sea 1822 - 

 communicating with the inlet before seen to the eastward, and appearing to ^J^J 

 extend several miles nearly in an east and west direction, or parallel to the 

 table-land before described, from which it is distant three or four miles. The 

 space between the creek and the table-land is quite low, forming a striking con- 

 trast with the rugged shore on which we stood, and being covered with abun- 

 dant vegetation, as well as intersected by numerous ponds of water. The 

 breadth of the little creek at the place at which we had arrived, being half a 

 mile above its junction with the wider inlet in which the Coxe Islands lie, is 

 about half a mile, and continues nearly the same for three or four miles that 

 we could trace it in a westerly direction. Beyond this it seemed to turn 

 more northerly, and our view being obstructed by the high and rugged hills 

 of which, on the north side of the creek, the whole tract of country is com- 

 posed, 1 determined to pursue our journey along its banks in the mornings 

 to ascertain its further extent, or at least to trace it till it was no longer 

 navigable for ships. That the creek we now overlooked was a part of the 

 same arm of the sea which Captain Lyon had visited, the latitude, the bear- 

 ings of Igloolik which was now plainly visible, and the number and appear- 

 ance of the Coxe Islands, which were too remarkable to be mistaken, all con- 

 curred in assuring us ; and it only therefore remained for us to determine 

 whether it would furnish a passage for the ships. Having made all the re- 

 marks which the lateness of the evening would permit, we descended to the 

 tent at dusk, being directed by a cheerful blazing fire of the andromeda tetra- 

 gojia, which in its present dry state served as excellent fuel for warming our 

 provisions. 



Setting forward at five A.M. on the 5th, along some pleasant valleys covered Thur. 5. 

 with grass and other vegetation, and the resort of numerous rein-deer, we 

 walked six or seven miles in a direction parallel to that of the creek ; when, find- 

 ing the latter considerably narrowed, and the numerous low points of its south 

 shore rendering the water too shoal, to all appearance, even for the navigation 

 of a sloop of ten tons, I determined to waste no more time in the further exami- 

 nation of so insignificant a place. There was not in this creek the least per- 

 ceptible stream of tide or current, which circumstance alone, considering the 

 strength of that which rushes through the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, would 

 have been sufficient perhaps to demonstrate that it had no outlet to the west- 

 ward. Its whole appearance indeed indicated it to be what it has since 

 proved, a mere inlet of the sea, similar to those we had before passed, com- 



